And minimal committment to clearing out misbehaviour, negligence and indolence. Victims of Qld. police thuggery may like to contact Renee Eaves for informal assistance

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Qld. Missing Persons Bureau did not work Sundays when Daniel Morcombe went missing

IF Daniel Morcombe had been reported as a missing person the day he vanished, the file would have gone to "an empty office".

The inquest into his suspected abduction and murder was told yesterday that in 2003, the Missing Persons Bureau "did not work Sundays".

Sergeant Robbie Munn, the police officer who took the initial statement from 13-year-old Daniel's parents, Bruce and Denise, early on the evening of December 7 that year, defended his decision not to immediately launch a full-scale search. Sgt Munn said even if he had forwarded a report to the Missing Persons Bureau, it would have been a waste of time. "They would not have had any staff on a Sunday and it would not have been attended to until Monday," he said. "At that time, it would have been forwarded to an empty office." Sgt Munn said for that reason an "official" missing persons report would have been "impractical and ineffective".

However, the inquest heard processes had since changed and several policies improved. These included the addition of a "risk assessment" check that now had to be completed by police every time someone was reported missing.

Under at times heated questioning from the Morcombes' solicitor Peter Boyce, Sgt Munn stood by his decision to send the Morcombes home to wait and see if Daniel turned up. He said there had been no pre-arranged time for Daniel to be back, so at that point he technically was not missing. Sgt Munn said Daniel had been from a good home, there were no tensions or obvious "warning signs" that would cause the boy to run away.

He organised a Be On The Lookout For (BOLF) bulletin to be broadcast to police in the Sunshine Coast area and said he would call the Morcombes a few hours later.

The inquest heard that when Sgt Munn phoned them at 10pm, darkness and the fact no shops or cinemas were open caused added concern.

Senior Constable Paul Campbell was the next officer involved. He had finished his 2-10pm shift at Palmwoods station, but was passed the responsibility to contact the Morcombes, which he did between 10.30 and 10.45pm. Sen-Constable Campbell said he treated it like a fresh complaint and interviewed Mr Morcombe about the events of the day. He decided it best to wait until the morning and arranged for the Morcombes to go to Palmwoods at 8am on the Monday to ask to lodge a missing persons report. "There were no facts before me that would lead me to think anything sinister had happened," said Sen-Constable Campbell.

The trial of two senior Queensland police officers charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice will begin in Rockhampton today. The former boss of Rockhampton's Criminal Investigation Branch Graham Richards and his former colleague Paul Dalton, are accused of conducting a secretive meeting with a prisoner the day before his new cell mate confessed to a murder.

Detective Senior Sergeant Richards, now retired, and Detective Sergeant Dalton, who has been suspended without pay, are accused of meeting with prisoner Lee Owen Henderson at the Capricornia Correctional Centre near Rockhampton in 2005. The two officers were recorded signing in and out of the centre but did not follow the requirement to record the meeting in any diary, log book or running sheet.

The day after the meeting Henderson's new cell mate, Scott Jobling, who was moved to the same cell at the request of the officers, confessed to killing Rockhampton flower seller Suzanne Standing.

The two officers are due in the Rockhampton District Court today at the trial heard by Judge Tony Martin. A jury will be selected today and the trial could run into next week. The police officers are being supported by the Queensland Police Union and both officers will plead not guilty to the charges.

It was previously heard in the committal hearing that the officers' failure to record the meeting with the prisoner was a mere oversight. The two officers were named in the Crime and Misconduct Commission's Operation Capri last year which investigated alleged police misconduct.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

The police conclusions about this have always stunk: Too lazy to do a proper investigation

A North Queensland MP has called for a third inquest into the brutal deaths of best friends Vicki Arnold and Julie-Anne Leahy, whose bodies were found near Atherton in August 1991.

Mulgrave MP Curtis Pitt told Parliament police found Ms Leahy in the driver’s seat of her Nissan Patrol, propped up by a tightly wrapped seatbelt around her neck, bashed with a large rock, shot twice in the head and with her throat slashed.

Beside her, Ms Arnold was sprawled across the passenger side floor, her hand resting on a sawn-off .22 gun. She had been shot in the thigh, upwards through her chin and fatally behind her right ear.

“Vicki Arnold has been written off as a murderer with no opportunity to defend herself,” Mr Curtis said. “This crime remains unsolved due to an unwillingness to acknowledge that it was virtually impossible for Vicki Arnold to have killed her friend in such strange circumstances and then take her own life.

“I believe a third inquest into this matter is warranted to make sense out of Iong-time confusion and to seek answers for a family still grieving,” Attorney-General Cameron Dick said: “I am currently taking advice on whether to direct the State Coroner to reopen an inquest.”

The article above appeared (print only) in the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" on 24 October, 2010

Monday, October 18, 2010

The violence dealt out by former officer Benjamin Price points to a grand-scale breakdown within our police force: "They showed no more caution than a bunch of druggies raiding a servo with a stick"

All Queensland police would have been shamed, embarrassed, humiliated and angered by videos showing former officer Benjamin Price strong-arming tiny Renee Toms and water-torturing Timothy Steele. Along with most ofthe 172,000 people who had watched the events on YouTube (as of Friday morning) they would have thought it was one of the lowest, most cowardly and disgusting displays of sadistic power-tripping they had seen.

Well, not of all of them, because the videos seemed to suggest that it was nothing much out of the ordinary at Airlie Beach police station, where officers are seen walking around the violence like you and I might step around a floor cleaner. It was very much business as usual, with a little bit of professional courtesy thrown in as one officer was seen handing Price the fire hose. There didn’t even seem to be the slightest bit of concern - let alone criminal cunning - over the fact that unsavoury events were being captured by video cameras, which they must have known about. They showed no more caution than a bunch of druggies raiding a servo with a stick.

This is the real problem for the Queensland Police Service as it deals with the backwash of a series of appalling events. That one policeman abused his authority is sad but no great surprise. But the fact that of nine police oticers on the periphery of the events that led to Price’s jailing only one, Constable Bree Sonter, did her duty as an officer and human being is shocking.

Five have quit and three are under investigation. Only Sonter has emerged with any credit, although her future in the force might not be a happy one. Throw in Price, and a failure rate of nine out of l0 is not too flash in any circumstance.

Airlie Beach is not exactly Gotham City, so this represents a failure of discipline, purpose, professionalism, process and moral courage on a grand scale. The force is justly proud of the fact that about a quarter of all complaints against officers are now made by police themselves but that cannot alter the fact that more than 50 per cent of those assigned to Airlie Beach were derelict in their duty.

If you subscribe to the rotten apple theory of policing, this barrel was pretty putrid, leaving a smell that has got right up the noses of most Queenslanders. It's not a question of police bashing. lt’s a question of squandered resources and squandered trust.

Think about it. One rogue cops gets off on brutalising people and, because of sins of omission, we lose five other trained officers and have three more under a very dark cloud. One rogue cop goes ape and all the good deeds, good policing and good reputations of thousands of others are trashed. And probably a million bucks is blown on compo for Price’s victims.

Attorney-General Cameron Dick says he is considering an appeal against the leniency of Price’s sentence because of the community outrage over the security camera footage.

They could throw away the key for all I care, but that’s not really the point. The point is that after an individual meltdown there was a collective breakdown in professionalism and process in a force that has more brass than a South American army, more regions than we have states, more districts than a red-headed kid has freckles, more inspectors and sergeants than there are bouncers at a Valley pub and more cops per capita driving desks than any other force in Australia.

Yet, it still seems to go off course with monotonous regularity, We need to know more, including just what happened to the mid-rampage reports of serious misconduct allegedly made about Price by his station oflicer.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

THE Crime and Misconduct Commission has been urged to re-investigate the Airlie Beach police bashings following the release of disturbing video footage of assaults by jailed former officer Benjamin Price.

The videos show other officers watching and in one case assisting Price during his assaults on handcuffed offenders, but the police service has said there is not enough evidence to charge them.

In a letter sent to the CMC, Queensland Council of Civil Liberties vice-president Terry O'Gorman said there were indications the police handling of the case had been "less than rigorous". "It is submitted there are a number of unaddressed issues in relation to the Airlie Beach matter, which bear an unfortunate similarity to the steps engaged in by various police in relation to the cover-up of the Palm Island affair," the letter reads.

Mr O'Gorman said there were "unsatisfactory aspects" to the Price case that warranted a thorough investigation.

"Why have criminal charges not been laid against the other officers who were present when a fire hose was shoved down the complainant's throat?" Mr O'Gorman said. "Why was Mr Price charged with the lesser offence of assault occasioning bodily harm when on the facts publicly known a charge of torture was clearly open?"

He said other senior criminal lawyers were of the opinion that under the law, the other officers who were present during the assaults could be charged. "Presence in something like that is regarded as encouragement," Mr O'Gorman said. "Secondly, the bloke who hands the police officer the hose is an alleged accomplice. That's criminal law 101."

A CMC spokeswoman said the investigation into officers who observed the assaults was "ongoing". "The CMC will be provided with a report from the QPS Ethical Standards Command. This report will outline the action the ESC is recommending against the officers," she said.

The videos posted by Queensland Police on YouTube have now been viewed by almost 200,000 people and have also been uploaded to other websites in India, New Zealand, the UK and the US.

Mr O'Gorman also criticised the "doctoring" of the footage including the lack of audio, but the CMC spokeswoman said the release of the video was a matter for the QPS.

Friday, October 15, 2010

COPS BASH COPS, TOO - THE QUEENSLAND POLICE

Media Release, Peter Pyke: 13 October 2010. (Peter Pyke was a Labor member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1992 to 1995, representing the district of Mount Ommaney. Prior to entering politics he served with the Queensland Police Service for 15 years, rising to the rank of Police Sergeant)

In 1994 I told then-Queensland Premier Wayne Goss that ‘politicians thought they were pretty powerful but - in our system – it was the police who had all the power’. Goss, a former-lawyer, looked blankly at me. He just didn’t understand what I was on about. As a first-time MP I had just told him that I was about to be charged by police with a number of criminal charges which I have always maintained were false, and the jury who acquitted me later seemed to agree. But I was a mere backbencher in his government and he had a huge majority so why should he care? It seemed to me he didn’t.

When Goss lost office in the next election by just one electorate – the ALP now understands that was my seat of Mount Ommaney which I had lost by a handful of votes after the coppers had smeared me beautifully in the media for fifteen months as only they can do – he may have better understood what I had told him.

The Queensland police – whose campaign slogan is the ironical ‘with honour we serve’ – changed the outcome of the 1995 Queensland election in favour of a Borbidge-led government which – happily for some – let convicted and disgraced police commissioner and junior Rat Pack member Terry Lewis out of gaol four years early. But who’s counting?

This week we have seen more of the handiwork of the Queensland coppers with the release of heavily censored CCTV footage of the bashing of handcuffed prisoners in the custody of that outstanding example of one of Queensland’s ‘finest’, former-senior constable Benjamin Thomas Price, who is shown bashing a tourist and a barmaid at the Airlie Beach police station in the state’s north.

The ex-policeman, 34, was sentenced to 27 months' jail on 11 October 2010 after pleading guilty to four counts of assault. Steele, a plasterer from NSW, suffered a broken nose, black eyes, a head wound, hearing problems, memory loss and lack of sensation in his arms and hands after his arrest in the popular Whitsundays tourist town. He told the court he was trying to break-up a fight between two mates when he was capsicum sprayed by police. It is alleged Price led the handcuffed Steele to a police car before saying "watch your head" and smashing his face into the vehicle, knocking him unconscious.

Price allegedly dragged Steele from the car outside Airlie Beach watch-house, repeatedly punched him and "kicked him with his boots" in the face, breaking his nose.

CCTV video footage from the police station shows a dazed, heavily bleeding Steele being dragged into an alley beside the watch-house. It shows the handcuffed man being punched in the head before having a fire hose jammed into his mouth, where it was held for up to 90 seconds as another officer watches.

Steele screams and groans in agony and blood can be seen sheeting down the concrete path as the policeman stands on the handcuffs, pressing his hand into the back of the man's neck, forcing his head into his lap in a brutal spine lock.

"I felt like I was going to drown," Steele told the court. "He jammed the hose into my mouth. I couldn't breathe. I was coughing and spluttering blood. It was pretty scary. It went on for a long time. I called him a pussy. He knocked me about. I was pretty dazed, I'd had a boot to my face, my nose was broken. I was choking on my own blood, I felt like I was drowning."

The vision shows other police officers standing by as Price stuffs a fire hose into his victim's mouth, nearly drowning him. The CCTV footage also shows Price hitting slightly-built barmaid Renee Tom, 21, slamming her to the floor inside the watch-house in January 2008 and pulling her to her feet by her hair.

As a former police officer who saw service as an operational trainer and academy law lecturer, I know full well that any one of the other police who observed Price’s actions could have stopped Price and even arrested him on the spot for each of his savage bashings. So what happened? Only one of the police shown in the censored footage with their faces blurred did something; it was left to courageous female trainee constable Bree Sonter to do the right thing and to complain about the incidents.

Queensland police deputy commissioner Ian Stewart told reporters on 11 October 2010 that five other officers had resigned and three more were facing potential disciplinary actions over the incidents. All of the other officers who did nothing were complicit in the offences in my opinion.

It was my honour to be sworn in under Commissioner Ray Whitrod in 1976 - Whitrod was a real police commissioner. I immediately saw service in North Queensland and soon discovered that police bashings of Aboriginal and homosexual citizens were everyday sport for far too many Queensland police. It’s easy to say, but individual police have the power to control the behaviour of their peers by stepping in and stopping offences like those committed by Price. I know, I was bashed several times in the Townsville watch-house and once out on the street by my police colleagues for intervening to stop other officers from assaulting prisoners.

As I said at the outset, each individual police officer has the power to arrest anyone, the premier, the prime minister, or another officer. With such power comes enormous responsibility.

That’s the job and that is what is required. Don’t like it? Coppers who aren’t up to it should get out of the kitchen.

Prisoners were being bashed in the custody of Queensland police in the 1970s and we now have incontrovertible evidence they are still being bashed, even under the watchful eye of CCTV. Too many police thugs are protected by their peers and deaths in police custody will continue to occur while other officers fail to serve with real honour.

Is it all bad? As someone who will bleed a little bit blue until the day I die, I like to listen to the police radio on the scanner when I am writing, or driving around. While the Queensland police are badly led by their most senior officers whom I wouldn’t feed, I can report that many of the uniformed officers who undertake first-response operational duties do an excellent job. It is with pride that I can report hearing more often than not in the voices of police on the scanner their obvious humanity and concern for children, young people, battered women, the homeless and the elderly, and I commonly hear police going to great lengths to ensure that everything possible is done for people who need police assistance.

No, it’s not all bad.

If there is a hero in this sad story it is Constable Bree Sonter who did serve Queenslanders with honour.

I call on the Queensland Government to appropriately honour this young woman with the highest police award.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Report on police bash-artist 'ignored' by police HQ

POLICE have been accused of ignoring a damning report detailing the use of excessive force against an offender by former Whitsundays officer Benjamin Price. Footage of Price bashing offenders while Queensland Police officers looked on has gone global on YouTube after he was sentenced on Monday to 27 months' jail for assaults on handcuffed tourists.

The former acting officer-in-charge of Whitsundays police station, Russell Pike, claims that an "injury in custody" report involving an assault by Price – then a senior constable – against Sydney tourist Renee Toms at Airlie Beach watchhouse in January 2008 was lodged with police. "Immediately after that incident with Renee Toms in the watchhouse, both those female officers (who saw it) insisted it was an injury in custody," he said.

Mr Pike said that as a result, the relevant duty officer had been notified and had arranged for a detective to come to the station immediately. "It was an official report that requested an urgent investigation into the matter," Mr Pike said.

He said Ms Toms spoke to police before the injury in custody report was filed to the Mackay District Office. He said Ms Toms had suffered a split chin in the assault.

But a police spokesman yesterday denied the report was received. Assistant Commissioner Peter Martin, from the Ethical Standards Command, yesterday told reporters police had no knowledge of a complaint made by an officer in January 2008. In a response to a later detailed inquiry by The Courier-Mail as to whether police had received a report of an injury in custody, a spokesman said no such report had been received.

Senior police yesterday described the fallout from the case, dubbed "Queensland's Rodney King" as a nightmare.

The QPS yesterday faced allegations it had failed to take action against officers who witnessed the attacks and failed to report them and also ignored at least one other report into Price's violent behaviour.

Mr Martin said three Queensland police officers present when footage was taken of Price brutally bashing offenders were under investigation. The three officers are still working for the QPS. Mr Martin said it would be unlikely they would be charged. Mr Martin applauded first-year trainee constable Bree Sonter, who came forward in May 2008 after video footage captured Price punching and kneeing handcuffed man Timothy Steele.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Cops present at bashings of tourists by fellow cop still working

They would be home free if not for the publicity

THREE police officers present when horrific footage was taken of an Airlie Beach cop brutally bashing offenders are still working in the force. The damning footage from the Whitsundays watch-house which shows officer Benjamin Price – who has since been jailed – attacking a civilian while his colleagues watched on.

Assistant Commissioner Peter Martin from the Ethical Standards Command addressed media at a press conference in Brisbane today. "There are currently at least three officers that we are looking at with respect to disciplinary matters and they are current officers," he said. "There are people depicted in the vision that are still members of the service that are subject of those investigations."

Mr Martin would not specify which officers are still members of the force and under investigation. He said the three officers being investigated for internal disciplinary matters had their faces blurred in the video footage because they matters remained "unresolved and not finalised".

Mr Martin said it would be unlikely the officers would be charged with criminal offences.[Why are they not charged with being accessories during and after the fact?]

Five officers including a sergeant, senior-constable and three constables have since resigned from the police service.

The footage was uploaded on to the Queensland Police YouTube page on Tuesday, just one day after officer Price was sentenced to 27 months jail for his assaults on handcuffed tourists.

Three complaints were made about Price including one by a victim in January 2008, then another complaint by first-year trainee constable Bree Sonter in May of the same year. The third complaint was from a victim also made in May 2008.

Mr Martin commended Constable Sonter for her actions said she was "heroic" in coming forward and making a complaint against Price.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Taxpayers fund payouts to former cop's bashing victims

ROGUE ex-cop Benjamin Thomas Price has cost taxpayers more than $1 million in secret payouts to three bashed tourist victims in a case of police brutality branded by senior officers as "one of the worst ever seen".

Former Senior Constable Price, 33, of Airlie Beach police station, yesterday pleaded guilty to three counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and one count of common assault against three victims in 2007 and 2008.

Documents obtained by The Courier-Mail reveal three victims made civil damages claims for at least six-figure compensation payouts against the Queensland Police Service – because the ex-cop is bankrupt.

His admission of guilt comes after female police whistleblower Constable Bree Sonter, yesterday hailed as a hero, broke ranks and filed a complaint against her former patrol partner two years ago.

Price was accused of punching and kneeing a handcuffed Timothy Steele before jamming a fire hose in his mouth, nearly drowning his victim on May 25, 2008. Shocking video footage from inside the Airlie Beach police station shows Price punching and kneeing a bleeding, handcuffed Timothy Steele.

In another incident, it was alleged petite barmaid Renee Toms, also handcuffed, was flung about by the hair by Price before being slammed into a desk and the floor inside the watchhouse.

His third victim, merchant banker Nicholas Le Fevre, of Sydney, claims he was king-hit and repeatedly punched in the head by Price after arguing with him. Yesterday he confirmed he was the latest to take a confidential out-of-court settlement.

Documents show Steele, a plasterer of NSW, filed a damages claim in Brisbane Supreme Court for $725,000 and is known to have signed off on a confidential agreement.

Barmaid Renee Toms, also of Sydney, yesterday confirmed her case was yet to be settled and was due to go to mediation with a compensation figure yet to be decided.

Price yesterday showed no emotion as he changed his plea to guilty and outside court refused to respond to questions about any formal apology to his victims.

But, in extraordinary claims on his Facebook page, the father-of-two protested his innocence in his latest entry. He said: "I want you to all understand that I have been forced into a corner by the QPS and the dogs that turned against me." He revealed he cut a deal with the DPP to change his plea to guilty for a reduced three-year sentence to spend a maximum 12 months in prison.

Deputy Commissioner Ian Stewart, in response to Price's guilty plea yesterday, said it was "one of the most difficult cases we've had to deal with". "We apologise to the community for this breach of trust," he said. "Certainly the behaviour is that of the worst I've seen for one single officer."

Asked by The Courier-Mail why the officers who witnessed the brutality but remained silent had not been punished, he replied they "may have received managerial guidance".[PATHETIC!!!!]

POLICE have posted disturbing video footage of a Queensland officer's thuggish assaults on alleged offenders at Airlie Beach police station, a day after he was sentenced to jail over the incidents.

The first video shows the then Senior Constable Benjamin Price throwing a slightly built, handcuffed woman to the ground then pulling her up by the hair.

Another officer walks around him while the assault is going on, and does not appear to say anything - although there is no sound in the videos.

In the second, Price is out of screen for part of the video before he drags a handcuffed offender up to a wall.

There is blood over the man’s nose and mouth and another officer then hands Price a fire hose, which he shoves in the victim’s face. The assault goes on for several minutes and is difficult to watch.

Police said the videos had been made publicly available online in recognition of the public interest in the matter. Acting Commissioner Ian Stewart said there was no place for such conduct in the Queensland Police Service.

Price was yesterday sentenced in the Townsville District Court to 27 months jail after pleading guilty to four counts of serious assault. He will be eligible for parole after nine months, in July 2011.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

He was either grossly negligent or "bought". Given the record of the Qld. wallopers both are quite likely

An arrest warrant has been issued for a tow company worker and a police officer has been disciplined after an alleged assault on a businessman in a Browns Plains carpark.

The development is the latest in a string of assault claims to emerge against employees of We Tow U and associated companies. The company has come under fire in the past week for carrying out allegedly predatory practices in shopping car parks.

Police are seeking a We Tow U spotter after the businessman, 54, claimed he was accosted while taking video at Grand Plaza carpark on March 26.

Footage obtained by The Courier-Mail shows the spotter – who was employed to watch patrons as they left the premises – grabbing the businessman's camera and saying: "I'm going to smash you."

The businessman then alleged the heavily-tattooed spotter crushed his hand and told him: "You better piss off out of here, I'm going to fix you up." "He was extremely agitated, like a terrier on speed," the businessman said.

At the time he was recording an apparent lack of towing signage at the car parking space from which his daughter's car was towed the previous day. The police officer who originally took his complaint allegedly told him: "Maybe he wanted to say hello."

The police officer has since been placed under supervision. Police formally apologised to the businessman last month and reopened the case.

A We Tow U insider said employees had left the company because of disillusionment with allegedly predatory tow-away practices.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Booze to flow on at police stations

Police will continue to drink in stations as the service refuses to go “dry” despite sweeping reforms aimed at stamping out bad behaviour. Social clubs will still be allowed to serve alcohol at their bars inside police stations with the QPS having no plans to adopt drink bans already in place in most workplaces - despite warnings in its own policy documents that people don’t like police drinking in uniform.

Eleven station social clubs, including one at the police academy in Oxley, have liquor licences or liquor permits. While the police policy says barbecues involving members of the community are to be encouraged, drinking on duty is banned.

The refusal to go dry comes despite a police officer being disciplined for drinking alcohol with “questionable” civilians at a police station until 4.3Oam. On November 14 last year, Senior Constable Jefiirey Frazer took a group of acquaintances back to Caloundra police station, after a social function, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal was told. He had intended to collect his car and alcohol and return home but once there they decided to stay and drink in the station’s social club area.

The report above appeared in the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" on 3 October 2010

Saturday, October 2, 2010

A POLICE officer who bashed handcuffed prisoners at a Brisbane station will be allowed to keep his job.

The Queensland Civil Administrative Tribunal has suspended the dismissal of Constable Patrick Gardiner for three years despite finding three misconduct charges against him were substantiated.

The Crime and Misconduct Commission had appealed to the tribunal after an internal police investigation dismissed two of the three charges against him, and imposed no penalty for the third.

The charges related to 11 excessive-force incidents in 2004 where Constable Gardiner was accused of slapping, throwing, kicking and punching six offenders in the Brisbane City Beat office.

On one occasion in September 2004, Constable Gardiner removed a prisoner's handcuffs and enticed him into a fight.

In the QCAT ruling, Judge Fleur Kingham found Constable Gardiner was relatively inexperienced at the time of the assaults. "It is regrettably true that police are sometimes abused and obstructed when lawfully exercising their powers," the judgment said. "Undoubtedly this occurs more frequently for those officers working at a City Beat station."

Justice Kingham said Constable Gardiner faced unacceptable behaviour from some of the complainants who were affected by alcohol, disrespectful, insulting or abusive or inciting others to "take on" the police. "It must be acknowledged that sustained exposure to such conduct has a cumulative effect."

Since being removed from the City Beat station and sent to a "more sedate suburban station" Constable Gardiner's conduct had been without reproach, said the judgment. "A consulting psychologist, who assessed and counselled Constable Gardiner in 2005, thought that move was vital for him to de-stress and review his policing practices," the judgment said.

Based on his clean record since the 2004 assaults, Justice Kingham ruled a recommendation to dismiss him from the police service should be suspended for three years.

"By the end of the operational period, it will be almost nine years since the conduct occurred; a very considerable period during which he will have had to serve at risk of bearing severe consequences for his conduct," the judgment said.

The findings will be recorded in Constable Gardiner's disciplinary history. A CMC spokeswoman said the commission respected QCAT's decision.

About Me

I am a 5'10" tall, jocular former university teacher aged 70 at the time of writing in early 2014 who still has a fair bit of hair. I am Australian born of working class origins and British ancestry. My doctorate is in psychology but I taught mainly sociology (Research Methods) in my 14 years as a university teacher. In High Schools I taught economics. I have taught in both traditional and "progressive" (low discipline) High Schools. My main interests are blogging, classical music, history, the stockmarket, current affairs and languages. I have been married four times to four fine women with whom I am still on amicable terms. I have one son born in 1987. I am totally non-sporting and have never owned a firearm. My brother has enough guns for the whole family. I did however enjoy my weapons training in the Army.
Fuller biographical notes here